The killing last August of a well-liked Polish man, ‘Arek’ Jóźwik, after a late night fracas in a pizza parlour in Harlow sent the BBC newsgathering operation into overdrive. It was the end of the silly season and only ten weeks after the referendum. The BBC, of course, was then, as now, hell-bent on finding and giving maximum exposure to …
KUENSSBERG’S BBC2 BREXIT PROGRAMME PROJECTS LEAVING EU AS NIGHTMARE OF COMPLEXITY
Britain’s Biggest Deal, BBC2’s programme about the triggering of the Brexit process, had a prime time slot, and was presented by the Corporation’s political editor Laura Kuenssberg. It was thus a shop-window effort. Impartial, in line with the BBC’s Charter requirements? No. It was a no-holds-barred attempt to show how literally nightmarish the exit process will be. Since June 24, …
Labour’s latest flip-flop in Brexit saga
This is a guest post by Paul T Horgan of The Conservative Woman, where this article was first published. The membership of the Labour Party is revolting. A group styling itself as Labour Against Brexit has written an open letter to Jeremy Corbyn, urging him to whip his MPs to vote against the Government’s Article 50 Bill. This letter reportedly …
News-watch Referendum survey of Radio 1 Newsbeat finds strong BBC bias towards ‘Remain’
During the EU referendum, the BBC adopted special editorial guidelines which required strict even-handed treatment of the Leave and Remain cases. News-watch has now completed a rigorous academic survey which shows conclusively that these guidelines were effectively ignored. There was heavy bias towards the Remain side in BBC Radio 1’s Newsbeat, a flagship news programme which reaches millions of the …
BBC Radio 4 Brexit Collection: strong bias against leaving the EU
The Brexit Collection is a selection of 31 programmes and features, originally broadcast on Radio 4, and posted by the BBC on its iPlayer website. It is presumably thus thought by the Corporation to be a balanced representation of its referendum coverage. Analysis by News-watch has now shown that the Collection was, on balance, very strongly anti-Brexit. News-watch transcribed and …
Complaints from both sides (again)
This is a guest post from Craig Byers of Is the BBC Biased? The BBC must be happy today.Yesterday came Boris at the Conservative Party conference saying (accurately) that the BBC is sometimes “shamelessly anti-Brexit” before adding (doubtless to the BBC’s delight), “I think the Beeb is the single greatest and most effective ambassador for our culture and our values”.Today in strode (Sir) …
BBC News Chief James Harding shows anti-Brexit bias
James Harding, the BBC’s Director of News, has fired a broadside against those poor, misguided souls who have dared to think that the BBC’s coverage of the referendum and its aftermath have been out of kilter. His chosen medium for this homily? Why, where else but that neutral newspaper so loved by the BBC – The Guardian? For those not …
BBC Archers trial portrays Brexit supporters as prejudiced bigots
This is a guest post from Craig Byers of Is the BBC Biased? Though I’ve listened to Radio 4 every since I was in my teens I’ve never paid any attention to The Archers. For me The Archers has never been anything more than a happy opportunity to go and brew a nice cup of tea until the next programme …
BBC push Farage race-hate ‘ blood on hands’ post-Brexit claims
BBC programmes have given a platform for claims that Nigel Farage has ‘blood on his hands’ for Harlow killing – despite local police warning against ‘jumping to conclusions’ about a ‘race hate’ angle. In Harlow, six teenagers have been arrested and bailed on suspicion of killing a 40-year-old Polish man who was mortally injured in attack in the town centre on …
R4 Brexit Street maligns ‘out’ voters
What could be the biggest threat to Brexit? Tory back-sliding and plotting by remainiacs like Anna Soubry? Undoubtedly they will have spent much of the summer fomenting new lines of subversion. They are ready pounce on and exaggerate any dissension in party Brexit ranks, as last weekend’s Sunday Times story about the alleged turf-war spat between Boris Johnson and Liam …